we'll be checking in with san francisco city attorney dennis herrera.e forefront. >> stephanie: in the trenches the whole time on this marriage equality issue. big show. big show today! by the way speaking of big shows, sexy liberal chicago looking at my flights -- booking my flight yesterday. on its way to sellout. hal sparks, john fuglesang and i at the chicago theatre april 13. oh and rocky mountain mike reminds us what airline i will be flying because if you tuned in my flight back from tucson tucson -- >> horny middle-aged woman. [ laughter ] >> how is that working out? >> stephanie: this is my experience lately. straight men and women when you tell them you're gay they take that as a challenge -- >> to move in on your mouth. >> stephanie: to ask -- she leaned in on the flight and said may i kiss you? like she was offering a mint. i was like no. no, no no. thank you. no, thank you. i was a very pommite chipmunk -- i was a very polite chipmunk. would you like my peanuts? >> no. >> did she take no as an answer the first time? >> stephanie: yes. altho

dennis herrera joined 18 scientists in urging the u.s. food and drug administration to take action, such as requiring of printing of caffeine fingerprinting on labels. last year the fda closed that deaths are possibly linked to the beverages. >>> it's one of specific's post popular events but the organization that runs it is in missing in objection. >>> an outrageous outburst inside a courtroom that pours salts in the rooms of victims' family members. >>> and san francisco's tie to the installation of pope francis. [ teen ] times are good, aren't they, kids? it's nice having u-verse, isn't it? see back in my day, we didn't have these newfangled wireless receivers. fangled? no, we watched march madness in the living room... that's where the tv outlet was. what is he talking about? and if mom was hosting her book club that day, guess what...you missed it! we couldn't just move the tv all willy-nilly all over the house. ohh! ohh! kids today have it so good. ok. [ male announcer ] call to get u-verse tv starting at $19 a month for 2 years wit

dennis herrera tweeted this before going into the supreme court. he's no stranger to the same-sex marriage debate. herrera is credited with filing the first lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of laws that discriminate between gay and lesbian couples. >> more hopeful than ever after putting discrimination on trial all these years we'll get a positive ruling out of the supreme court. i thought it was incredibly forceful and compelling in the case made before the justices. >> herrera wasn't the only california politician in the courtroom. governor newsom and state senator mark leno were also there. >>> even though it is 3,000 miles away, the bay area is intently watching what's going on at the supreme court. some local cities are even showing their support for marriage equality in a very unique way. nbc bay area's kristi smith is live in berkeley with why the justices decision means so much. good morning, christy. >> good morning. we just left berkeley and came to oakland. what a day. cities are coming out strong in support of same-sex marriage

also with our other official city family, dennis herrera is here, phil tate, of course, took a time away from sacramento to be down here. thank you, phil, for being here. i know we have a representative from betty yee office, board of equalization that has oversight on assessor's office across the state. jose cisneros, treasurer of state. you sent david augustine. ben rosenfield, our controller, [speaker not understood], our budget director, of course. and then harvey, thank you for being here as well. and just all the members of the board that are here today. i think nadia is trying to get down here as soon as she finishes the final ratings on other companies. but i first of all -- it really is a necessity to have someone at the helm of the assessor's office. i personally want to thank zoom wynn who has been in that transition for us. she's a real delight to have work with in this time period. she's held the office together and i want to thank her permly for being here today. (applause) >> a great job. you know, it comes as no surprise probably for all of us that i've chosen carmen. car

. >> reporter: the san francisco city attorney dennis herrera has argued for marriage equality for the last nine years before more than 50 judges. now he along with a team of attorneys are preparing to make the case for equal protection under the law before the nation's highest court. >> be prepared to make your case to all nine justices, that thing are unpredictable and you'll to have argue the law. >> reporter: herrera said support from the white house bolsters his case. newsome said it signals a animal shift. >> clearly he has federalized the issue which has profound implications across the country. >> reporter: the u.s. supreme court hears the prop 8 arguments on march 26th. a decision is expected in june. reporting live in san francisco, jean elle. >>> coming up, the pope makes his exit. >> reporter: hundreds joined a special mass tonight but some say they're dealing with a bit of a crisis. why part of the church's base could be vanishing. >>> an east bay couple once thought to be missing in south america found. next, the new evidence that they're alive and well. >>> i look at mys

dennis herrera joined scientists in urging the fda to take action. late last year the fda disclosed that five deaths since 2009 are possibly linked to those drinks. the companies that make those drinks strongly deny that possible link. >>> researchers say they have linked 180,000 obesity related deaths to sugary drinks. of that number 25,000 were americans the data comes from the world health organization. scientists say the study covered adults and that future research will likely look at the effects on children. >>> coming up the winner in the [ man ] i got this citi thankyou card and started earning loads of points. we'll leave that there. you got a weather balloon, with points? yes i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. go. ♪ keep on going in this direction. take this bridge over here. there it is! [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. [ laughter ] [ male announcer ] earn points with the citi thankyou card and redeem them for just about anything. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. >>> curiosity is back. th

dennis herrera joined scientists in urging the fda to take action.e fda disclosed that five deaths since 2009 are possibly linked to those drinks. the companies that make those drinks strongly deny that possible link. >>> researchers say they have linked 180,000 obesity related deaths to sugary drinks. of that number 25,000 were americans the data comes from the world health organization. scientists say the study covered adults and that future research will likely look at the effects on children. >>> coming up the winner in the world baseball classic. mark will have the highlights. >>> nasa cheers its mars rover after a few glitches are resolved. there's this island -- and it's got super-cute kangaroos. barrow island has got rare kangaroos. ♪ chevron has been developing energy here for decades. we need to protect their environment. we have a strict quarantine system to protect the integrity of the environment. forty years on, it's still a class-a nature reserve. it's our job to look after them. ...it's my job to look after it. ♪ >>> curiosity is back

dennis herrera is urging the fda to require the amount of caffeine in the drinks be printed on the labelear, the fda disclosed that five deaths are possibly linked to these beverages. the companies who make the drinks insist they are safe. >>> and a new study says sugary drinks can kill you. researchers say they've linked 180,000 deaths widespread to obesity. the american beverage association says the study is more aboutsennationallism than science. >>> 7:53. starting this weekend, disney will ban children under the age of 14 from coming into its theme parks by themselves. the new policy covers disneyland, california adventure of anhaim as well as disney -- anaheim as well asdynyworld in orlando. the parents who often drop off their kids at the park for the day, they were alerted to the policy change. disney will start screening guests as they come into the park. if a guest appears to be under 14 years old, a parent will have to be with that child. >>> 7:54. i want to check in with sal and see what's happening on the roads. >>> tori and dave, in san jose, we've been looking at that parti

dennis herrera is urging the fda to require the amount of caffeine in the drinks be printed on the label fda disclosed that five deaths are possibly linked to these beverages. the companies who make the drinks insist they are safe. >>> and a new study says sugary drinks can kill you. researchers say they've linked 180,000 deaths widespread to obesity. the american beverage association says the study is more aboutsennationallism than science. >>> 7:53. starting this weekend, disney will ban children under the age of 14 from coming into its theme parks by themselves. the new policy covers disneyland, california adventure of anhaim as well as disney -- anaheim as well asdynyworld in orlando. the parents who often drop off their kids at the park for the day, they were alerted to the policy change. disney will start screening guests as they come into the park. if a guest appears to be under 14 years old, a parent will have to be with that child. >>> 7:54. i want to check in with sal and see what's happening on the roads. >>> tori and dave, in san jose, we've been looking at that particular in

dennis herrera is a city attorney for san francisco.ing, carol. >> good morning. so you have sort of the opposite view. you and a group of doctors have been asking the fda to force these energy drink makers to include that information. it looks like you got your wish. >> well, it's a step in the right direction. historically, monster and most other energy drink manufacturers really shied away from classifying their product as beverages, because if you are a beverage, caffeine is a food additive, which then would have to meet, under federal law, the generally recognized as safe. which means it has to be a general consensus of scientific opinion that the product is safe. and that is a burden that's on the manufacturer. they've never had to show that, and by classifying it as a dietary supplement, they escaped regulation totally. so from our perspective, this is a step in the right direction, and now the impetus is going to be on monster to demonstrate that their product is safe. we've asked them to do that. and unfortunately, they haven't

i'm joined by san francisco city town dennis herrera and austin nimox. to you both. >> good morning. >> thank you for having us. >> austin, you heard what karl rove just said. are you on the wrong side of history? >> the only side of history with regard to marriage is the right one regarding the truth. and that really should be decided by the american people. americans have an inevitable and inalienable right to determine our own history and that's really a fundamental aspect of america. we have a massive political debate going on in this country about marriage. and the last thing we need is the supreme court to take this debate away from the american people, print a 50 state solution to the marriage question. that's not what we want. we have democratic institutions for a reason and we need to keep using them as we debate marriage, its meaning and its importance to our society. >> and dennis, prop 8 was approved by voters in california. you want the u.s. supreme court to overturn that law. some say the court maybe loath to do that even with the public ev